Elise was totally delirious, but Sammy and I managed to get her off the tramp and into the car (which I drove around back--there was no way I could carry her up the garden stairs) and to Urgent Care. Sammy went inside for a wheelchair and they got her in for an x-ray very quickly. Fortunately it was just a sprain and they sent her home with an air brace and crutches.
The doctor said she could start dancing again as soon as her foot felt better, but her dance teachers had a different recovery plan: NO dancing for 6 weeks. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. Once the 6 weeks were up she eased back into dance--still no releves, jumps or pointe work. In fact, she didn't go back on pointe until the end of January!
It was a really hard 4 months, but Elise learned some really important things. One was that she truly does love dance. She had been experiencing a bit of burn out and had been just going through the motions for most of the previous year, but on having dance forcibly removed from her life, she realized how much she needs it.
Another things was how to care for an immediate injury without forfeiting her future career as a dancer. It takes lots and lots of time, patience and rehabilitation. There are no quick fixes. When she was in class, watching, she wrote down lots of corrections, combinations and insights from the teachers, and those notebooks will be invaluable to her when she teaches in the future. When she is dancing there is never time to jot down a quick note; she used her down time well.
Fast forward 2 weeks...I get a call from Sammy's gymnastics gym about 30 minutes before practice is over--never a good thing! Sammy had been moving a mat and bumped a clock which fell on his head, causing a pretty decent sized gash. Back to Urgent Care we went!
Fortunately for everyone, our urgent care has a never-ending supply of dum-dums. In true Sammy fashion, he chose out one dum-dum for himself, and one for every other member of our family. He got 3 stitches and a charge to not be crazy for the next few days.
Exactly 2 weeks after Sammy's accident, Trevor was standing on a chair, hanging a picture on the wall. He took a little step back to admire his handiwork, caught the edge of the chair, slipped, and whacked his forehead on the corner of the table. There was blood everywhere, and I had a pretty good idea where we were headed next. Urgent care!
His hair was so long I had to take out my pony tail to use the hair tie to get his hair out of the way for the doctor to get to the gash. 3 more stitches, many more dum-dums, a popsicle and home we went.
Thankfully we haven't been back to urgent care since October, and I'm hoping to keep that streak alive!
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